Chapter 26
Three major corporations dominated Korea's food industry.
OI Food.
Uttuk Food.
Rohan Food.
Yet on this Saturday morning, all three headquarters looked as though bombs had gone off inside them.
Marketing teams.
PR teams.
Production executives.
People gathered in emergency meetings looking exhausted and barely washed.
The boycott against Japan and China had exploded overnight.
And somehow...
The public anger had shifted toward the country of origin of ingredients used in major instant rice products.
Public opinion had completely changed.
Among the three companies, OI Food took the first major blow.
It held the number-one share of Korea's instant rice market.
At OI Food's headquarters in central Seoul...
The atmosphere inside a high-rise meeting room overlooking the city was completely frozen.
Bang!
The head of marketing slammed his fist onto the table.
On the screen in front of him...
OI Food's stock price was falling in real time.
And online news sites were flooded with headlines.
[OI Food Instant Rice Contains Japanese Extract]
[Korea's Representative Instant Rice Brand OI Food... Actually Japanese?]
“How did this risk explode without a single person from PR or management noticing?”
The PR manager and operations manager remained silent.
Apparently, they had never imagined something like this could happen either.
The head of marketing looked at them in disbelief and sighed.
“VTC fans started spreading full ingredient investigations at three in the morning.”
“Do you understand that?”
“...Yes. We confirmed it.”
“What time is it now?”
His voice rose.
“Ten...”
“Exactly.”
“Ten.”
“Seven hours have passed.”
“And you're telling me we still haven't posted a proper official statement?”
The operations manager lowered his head.
“I'm sorry.”
“Forget apologies.”
“Why aren't we acting right now?”
At that moment...
Creaaak.
The head of the food research center burst into the room, sweating.
“Director!”
He rushed forward and held out a document.
“The Japanese rice bran extract is an essential additive used to prevent oxidation and improve shine in the cooked rice.”
“So?”
“It makes up less than 0.1% of the total product, so legally it wasn't even required to be specifically listed.”
The operations manager quickly supported him.
“Online users somehow found the address of the Japanese manufacturing plant.”
“Now they're claiming it's near the area affected by the nuclear disaster.”
“That is why we haven't been able to respond quickly.”
“But if we release the safety test results...”
“Right.”
“The ingredient is completely safe and has passed national standards.”
They nodded to one another.
But the head of marketing looked at them differently.
“Does any of that matter right now?”
“We already secured the inspection certificates.”
“If we release a statement immediately...”
The head of marketing cut him off.
“The public isn't arguing about whether it's safe.”
“They're asking why we used Japanese material in the first place.”
“But...”
“Anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese sentiment is at its highest because of the VTC controversy.”
“Words like 'below the legal threshold' will just sound like excuses.”
Silence returned.
“Then what do we do?”
The head of marketing closed his eyes and grabbed his head.
“Change it to domestic material.”
“Find a replacement factory immediately!”
The research director went pale.
“Domestic rice bran extract doesn't have enough mass-production capacity.”
“They can't even handle one day's worth of our orders.”
“If we don't change it now...”
The head of marketing shouted.
“Forget daily orders.”
“At this rate, unsold instant rice is going to fill our factories.”
“To switch the production process to domestic ingredients, we'd need to stop the line for at least three months and reset the equipment.”
“Immediate replacement is impossible.”
“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?”
“The boycott hashtag for our instant rice already passed one million mentions!”
His scream filled the meeting room.
OI Food's proud cost-saving and mass-production system...
Had become a trap around its own neck.
At the same time...
Uttuk Food was not much better.
It had long been loved by the public as a kind and ethical company.
Now that image was collapsing.
The PR manager's phone was vibrating almost every second.
Calls from major-mart merchandisers.
Calls from wholesalers.
“Customers are throwing our instant rice back onto the shelves and demanding refunds.”
He ran a hand through his messy hair.
Then turned toward the CEO.
“CEO, here's the draft statement.”
“What does it say?”
“We emphasized that the Japanese additive is used only in extremely small quantities and that it has passed strict radiation tests.”
The CEO of Uttuk Food read the statement.
Then rubbed his forehead.
“If we post this exactly as written, we're going straight to hell.”
“People think we deceived them.”
“But we didn't.”
“Legally, no.”
He looked at the document.
“But our public image was built around being an ethical company that supports domestic rice.”
“Now they're asking why we quietly used a Japanese ingredient where no one would notice.”
“But... less than 0.1% is practically nothing.”
The CEO raised his index finger.
“Exactly.”
“That 0.1%.”
“If it's almost nothing, then it's still something.”
“Because of that tiny amount, the tower we've built for years is about to collapse.”
“We can't simply discard all those materials immediately.”
“We have hundreds of billions of won worth of stock in warehouses and already in distribution.”
“If we recall or discontinue everything, the quarterly loss will be impossible to absorb.”
The CEO narrowed his eyes.
“So your plan is to post an explanation and wait for the storm to pass?”
“Do you really think public opinion will calm down that easily?”
His prediction was correct.
There was no immediate solution.
Meanwhile...
Rohan Food had initially felt relieved because its ingredients were 100% Korean.
But it could not escape either.
The controversy moved toward its container.
“Why is the fact that the container is made in China suddenly a problem?”
“Exactly.”
“The rice itself is completely Korean.”
The logistics director shouted in frustration.
But the marketing manager remained cold.
“Director, look at social media.”
“Because the C Group member who mocked VTC is Chinese, anti-China sentiment is exploding.”
“People are spreading photos showing that our instant rice container is manufactured in China.”
“That's ridiculous.”
“These containers passed every food-safety test.”
“You know consumers move emotionally.”
“They're saying it feels disgusting to pour steaming-hot food into Chinese-made plastic.”
“This is absurd.”
The marketing manager wrinkled his nose.
“The narrative has already become this.”
“Rohan Food imported even the plastic bowl from China just to save money.”
“Then what?”
“We replace every container?”
“Yes.”
“Move everything to domestic manufacturers immediately.”
“Domestic molding factories are already fully booked.”
“There is no company that can suddenly absorb our volume.”
“If the containers stop coming, instant rice production stops completely.”
Rohan Food's cost-saving choice had returned like a boomerang.
The three corporations that controlled almost the entire Korean instant rice market...
Were now screaming over imported materials and packaging that they had never expected consumers to care about.
WG Food was also in chaos.
But our screams were happy screams.
Phones kept ringing with people demanding product.
Employees were too busy responding to orders.
Meanwhile...
Lee Sejun barely moved from his seat.
He completely ignored the calls from his clients.
His eyes remained fixed on his monitor.
His eyelids trembled.
He was staring at real-time stock charts for OI Food and Uttuk Food.
Both were diving from the moment the market opened.
Billions of won in market value were disappearing.
His little Damyang food-supply mart no longer mattered.
The entire food industry was changing.
And it was changing because of the man he had mocked.
At that moment...
“Assistant Manager Joo, please come to the meeting room immediately!”
Choi Inwoo had been given full authority over WG Instant Rice by CEO Jeong.
There was no hesitation in his voice.
He summoned Assistant Manager Joo Narae from the design team.
She had already seen the online explosion surrounding WG Instant Rice.
Her eyes shone as she hurried into the meeting room.
Manager Jang Woojin watched blankly.
Choi Inwoo did not even look at him.
“Assistant Manager Joo, reduce the logo and unnecessary text even further from yesterday's concept.”
“Yes.”
“And I want [0% / 100%] on the front to become even more visually dominant.”
Choi Inwoo wrote trend data onto paper.
“The major corporations are going to release explanations saying their products are safe and legal.”
“Probably.”
“They don't have enough time to change ingredients overnight.”
“So they'll release statements first.”
She nodded.
“Public opinion won't support those excuses.”
“That's the opening we're going to enter.”
Choi Inwoo wrote a sentence in large letters.
[We Have Nothing to Explain. We Never Mixed in Even 0.1% From the Beginning.]
“How does this sound?”
The moment Joo Narae read it...
“...That's insane.”
Goosebumps covered her body.
One sentence completely destroyed every defensive explanation the large corporations could possibly release.
“Assistant Manager Choi.”
“No, since you've been given full authority... should I call you Team Leader?”
“Haha. No.”
“If we use this advertisement, the major corporations are going to bleed.”
“This is the niche strategy a small company like us can use.”
At that exact moment...
The door flew open without a knock.
Manager Jang Woojin and Lee Sejun entered with hard expressions.
They looked across the materials on the table.
Then Manager Jang shouted so loudly the room seemed to shake.
“Choi Inwoo, have you completely lost your mind?”
